


Coming To Take You Home

by reason_says



Category: Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: Character Study, Family Dynamics, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 05:44:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19222810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reason_says/pseuds/reason_says
Summary: Family is more important than anything, and Dragon Lee loves his family. It's his brother's faction he can't stand.





	Coming To Take You Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smarky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smarky/gifts).



He can see it in their eyes, all of them. When he fights by their side, and when he fights against them, and when he fights on his own. Everyone has the same question, but no one asks out loud.

_When are you going to join them? When are you going to join us?_

Dragon Lee adjusts his mask in the mirror, tugging the bridge down to protect his nose. He has his mother’s nose. Her eyes too, but his father’s jawline. His fierceness is from both of them.

Nothing is more important than family. He knows his siblings understand this, his parents too, but not everyone does. There are tecnicos who don’t trust him because he teams with Rush, and rudos who think Mistico is just biding his time before he snaps. Though Comandante hasn’t started pushing Tapatia to join yet, he knows it's only a matter of time before his sister is part of this battle too. But it’s never been that simple.

His father has been a rudo for as long as Lee has been alive. Everything Lee has and is, he got from La Bestia del Ring. He’s a role model and a guide, a parent and trainer, and Lee loves him. Being trained by him doesn’t mean he’ll follow in his footsteps, though. Loving him doesn't mean condoning everything he does. Everyone wants to see a deeper motive in it, though. Spite instead of ethics, lashing out instead of holding strong to himself. Even Rush teases him about his “rebellion”.

“When are you going to stop being stubborn and go along with us? You’re a little too old to be a teenage contrarian, aren’t you?”

“That’s not gonna work. It never works. I’m not doing this to spite you, I’m doing it because it’s _right_.”

Rush doesn’t want a sermon on how upsetting it is when he unmasks people. He doesn’t want to hear that it’s wrong to hit people below the belt, or hit them with chairs. It’s a way of life for him, the most efficient way to win his fights, and Lee doesn’t want to argue. Even to point out that Rush is disqualified almost as much as he wins, because he’s sloppy and doesn’t care if he gets caught. This clearly doesn’t matter to him, and Lee doesn’t want to cause trouble. He’ll let Rush do his own thing, the same way Rush lets him live his own life.

When they were children, Rush would threaten to beat up any other kid who insulted his little brothers, and would usually follow through, but now that they’re adults he trusts them to fight their own battles. It’s comforting to know Rush believes in him, but it hurts a little when his own brother won’t lash out at Terrible for unmasking him. There‘s no real leader in Los Ingobernables, but as the leader they don’t officially have, Rush could, if he wanted, tell the others not to target his brother. But Rush won’t do that, and even in his frustration Lee understands why. It's because he trusts Lee, but also because going behind his back to talk to someone bullying him like they’re still on the playground would demean Lee - and probably wouldn’t work, besides.

Family matters more than anything. More than factions. More than alignments, more than morals. It’s why Rush teams with his tecnico brothers and trusts them not to stop him from cheating, and why Lee and Mistico can trust that he won’t turn on them either. But they’re not in Los Ingobernables, and while Lee can’t speak for Mistico, he doesn’t ever want to join. There’s a difference between teaming with Rush and adopting his mindset.

Satisfied with his mask, Lee adjusts his cape and heads to his entrance. Waiting, he shifts nervously, breathing carefully through his nose to keep himself calm. He’s not fighting his family tonight - he’s in Japan, wrapping up the Best of the Super Juniors tour with not a hope of winning the tournament. Tonight, he and Titán are fighting the man who might be his next challenger - Takagi, who honestly makes Lee a little nervous - and Naito. So maybe he’s fighting family after all.

Because, of course, Los Ingobernables are a family too. Not the same as the Muñoz dynasty, but family just the same. They’re not Lee’s family, not by blood _or_ by choice, but they’re one another's. And that, no matter what he wants, binds him to them.

Terrible will fight him, will try to show his face to the world, but at the end of the day he’s still family by association, still invited to dinner. Sombra is his godfather, his guide even now that he’s far away, and even Máscara claims not to hold a grudge over his unmasking. Rush might actually have talked to him about that, but Lee is never going to ask.

(How Lee feels about this doesn’t matter, has never mattered, can’t be the focus. This is the way things are, even if he flinches when Terrible laughs too loudly.)

And Naito… no matter what he is in Japan, he’s still part of Los Ingobernables. The original, the only. Los Ingobernables de Japon are a side group, and Lee respects them for reasons of his own, but they’re not the same by a long shot. Naito and Rush, though, are in both groups, and that makes things a little... complicated.

Fighting Naito isn’t like fighting Takagi - it’s less straightforward, tending to trickery and taunts rather than pure skill. (Trickery is a skill itself, his father’s voice says in his head, and he doesn’t focus on that.) He has to dodge, to outthink his opponent rather than just outmaneuvering him, and when he executes his version of Naito’s corner combination and rolls into a pose he knows all eyes are on him.

It’s a taunt to Naito, and to a lesser extent the audience, but also to Rush.

To Naito, it says “You’re good, but I’m closer to him than you’ll ever be - he taught me first, and I know you better than you think.”

To the audience, not all of whom are familiar with his family, it says “I was born into this, this is my family’s legacy and gesture, it doesn’t belong to Naito.”

To Rush, watching at home, it says “I respect you both, but I can respect you without joining you or using your tactics.”

And then Naito steals his mask, which he’d almost forgotten to expect after so long. In the indignant scramble, he barely has time to hope Rush had gone to bed - he has a fight tomorrow, after all - and isn’t really watching this. Not stooping to Naito’s level had gotten him unmasked anyway, and Rush would have a field day with that.

He doesn’t know if it’s worse or better that Naito doesn’t take this sort of thing seriously. He hadn’t even done it during the fight, the way Rush would have. He’d waited until his team had already won, and that - if nothing else - proves that Los Ingobernables de Japon have drifted from Rush and Sombra’s original motivation. Lee shouldn’t be bothered by that, but he’s seen how they fight when other members of Los Ingobernables are here with them. Fantastica Mania every year shows him that they’re still capable of being as vicious as they once were. Maybe they just need reminders.

One part of him - the part that speaks with his brother’s voice - is almost disappointed in Naito, frustrated that he didn’t use every tactic available to win and only used his opponents’ masks as post-match entertainment. The larger part appreciates that Naito and Takagi ended the fight solidly, decisively, before being bastards for no reason. They didn’t use every tactic available, just the ones they needed. Rush, on the other hand, has been known to throw away two straight falls because he can’t stay away from a mask. Maybe it’s better that Naito doesn’t rely on that.

He shouldn’t worry about this. It’s done, he can’t change it. No pasa nada, he tells Titán - this is nothing, stay calm. It wasn’t even a tournament match, so what is he upset about? Losing the fight, losing his mask, so what? He’s still alive, he’s still in Japan. Deep breaths, he reminds himself. Tranquilo.

This would be easier if he could talk it out with Hiromu, but it gets awkward to discuss. Hiromu’s found family is so important to him that it’s sometimes hard for him to understand why Lee doesn’t want to be part of one. The way Hiromu fights with his brothers is different from the way Lee fights with his, and if there’s a moment of hesitation when he uses that word, he squashes it. There’s no reason to be unfair, a brother is a brother. Being raised with them doesn't make them more or less part of his life.

It's just that they relate so differently, encouraging intra-faction competition, and that's not something Lee is entirely comfortable with. He always has the fear in the back of his mind that winning or losing one too many unofficial competitions will get him kicked out. That's unreasonable of him - if nothing else has gotten him kicked out yet, surely success wouldn't - but he tries to be careful anyway. Hiromu doesn't have that fear, or if he does he's never expressed it.

And after all, Hiromu has known him longer than Los Ingobernables have existed. It’s a technicality, but it’s something he keeps coming back to. The crowds had turned on Rush, Sombra, and Mascara long before they decided to stop caring, but they hadn’t made it official until after Hiromu - then Kamaitachi - had arrived. The seed was waiting to be watered, just as the seed of Dragon Lee and Kamaitachi’s rivalry was quietly germinating for months without an official fight.

Months of annoying each other during training, of Kamaitachi stealing Lee's protein powder from his bag and Lee retaliating by leaving free weights right behind Kamaitachi so he’d trip over them. Months of Lee lying awake at night fuming about this ridiculous masked man. By the time they finally fought their irritation had turned into hatred, but nothing could have prepared them for how much they would love fighting each other. Their chemistry was a surprise to both of them, and only made Lee more determined to fight until Kamaitachi admitted defeat and left CMLL once and for all.

But then, somewhere along the line - more quickly than he'd prefer to admit - he started to look forward to fighting Kamaitachi. They understood and saw through one another in the ring, in a way no one else ever had. Move for move, blow for blow, they matched their moves and urged each other on, and when, one night after a fight, Kamaitachi had traced his fingers along Lee's jaw and pressed their foreheads together through their masks, Lee had been startled but not truly surprised.

When he returned the gesture the next night, Kamaitachi jerked away at first, but paused and tilted his head. Lee couldn't see his face, still had no idea what his rival looked like, but he could imagine the hidden smile. It had to be a smile, right? Kamaitachi had started this, surely he'd follow through. Kamaitachi placed a hand in the center of his own chest, then over Lee's heart. He dug his nails in until Lee felt the bite of them, and tilted his head once again before turning away. Lee looked after him until the other man entered the locker room, until he was shaken out of his stupor by Mistico's arm around his shoulder.

Their rivalry hadn't ended there, of course. It still hasn't. It's just deepened, become harder to explain to their respective families. Lee doesn't remotely want to have a conversation about this if he can avoid it, and so far no one has forced the issue. Hiromu, always less subtle, less willing to hide what he feels, shouts from the rooftops what Lee has, until recently, only been able to imply, but even that doesn't draw as many questions as Lee had assumed it would. In the wake of their disastrous match in America, with nothing left to lose, he's become more open as well. Though it's difficult, he ignores the glances from Naito and the raised eyebrows from Rush, because this thing is between him and Hiromu, and no one else.

But, of course, everything they do involves a handful of other people, no matter how unrelated it seems. As close as they've become, there's still a distance in certain matters, and Lee can't go to Hiromu with everything. He's very much a member of Los Ingobernables de Japon, and for better or worse, that affects his perspective when Lee complains about Naito unmasking him.

Hiromu would never ask anyone to fight his battles for him, and had unmasked Lee a number of times even before Lee had won Kamaitachi’s mask once and for all. Though he'd texted Lee asking if he was all right after Terrible had torn his mask off, it would never occur to him to suggest getting revenge outside the ring. That's what fighting is for. If you're going to fight - even for your own sake - you might as well trick a company into paying you to do what you want to do anyway. And when it's someone even closer to home, the conversation becomes more difficult.

They’ve both changed so much since their first meeting, but Hiromu’s loyalty to Naito is only matched by Lee’s loyalty to Rush, so it’s hard to have this discussion.

"If you joined us, they wouldn't do that anymore. You'd be safe, because you're family. No one would try to unmask you again."

“I have my own family,” Lee tries to explain, has tried to explain before. “I don’t always like what they do, but I love them, because we're a family and we stick together. Los Ingobernables aren’t really my family, they’re just a group.”

“They’re not _just_ anything, they’re amazing.” Their conversations aren’t always the smoothest, though Hiromu’s Spanish is much better than Naito’s, but it’s always obvious when he’s defensive. “Without Los Ingobernables, there wouldn’t be an LIJ, and who knows where I’d be? I would never have won Belt-san without their support, I know it.”

If he hadn’t won the title, he wouldn’t have fought Lee for it, and he wouldn’t be in recovery now. Lee doesn’t say this. He barely lets himself think it. Hiromu pats his hand anyway.

“We’d still fight, though. We’ll always fight. I don’t ever want to stop fighting you, Dragon Lee. Not until the rest of the stars fall and we all return to the sea.”

Lee shutters his eyes at that, forcing himself not to react to the most romantic thing he’s ever heard. He never wants to stop fighting Hiromu. He wants to hold on to this title until Hiromu can fight him for it again, and no matter who his challenger is when the tournament is done, he’ll work as hard as he can to make that a reality. For all his attempts at stoicism, his heart beats quickly enough that Hiromu places a hand on his chest.

“I’ll win my title back from you,” he promises, “and then we’ll fight again, and again, until the end of the world.”

Lee clasps his hand over Hiromu’s on his chest, tracing his thumb over the raised scar. He could stay like this forever, but Hiromu has other ideas. He leans in, tilting Lee’s head back with a gentle headbutt until their mouths match up and they kiss like it’s their first time all over again. Maybe Lee can’t talk about his family with Hiromu, but their stretched connection gives him excuses to fight his rival more often than he ever thought he’d be able to in separate promotions, and he can’t help but be grateful for that. He smiles against Hiromu’s mouth, and if he shivers from the feeling of Hiromu’s hands carding through his hair, it’s an excuse to move closer for warmth.

 

* * *

 

A week later he’s back in Mexico. He’s lost the title, but no one’s talking about that, and he’s thankful. (He has other titles, and losing to Ospreay is no disgrace, but losing a connection to Hiromu stings nonetheless.) This gathering, unusual in these days when the family is so far-flung, is to celebrate Rush and their father winning the first block of the Copa Dinastía.

It’s a great victory, and Lee is proud of them. Everyone in his family works hard and deserves all the success they get, even if they cheat to get it sometimes. He can’t explain that to non-family members, and he’s stopped trying. He won’t cheat, he firmly believes in not cheating, but it’s a tactic in their arsenal. The part of him that thought it would be worth more if Naito had unmasked him as a distraction tactic during their match instead of afterward is the same part that distantly appreciates the strategy behind hidden low blows and interference. It upsets him, but it’s a tactic that works.

Leaving his family to do their own thing has been the best strategy so far, and it’s bought them success, so who is he to argue now? He didn’t always feel this way, but with this block win the results are obvious. If this were any other tournament, he would be urging them on to win the final, and he would believe they could do it.

But, just as he’s pushing aside his feelings about his loss, there’s an undercurrent of uncertainty about the next segment of the tournament that no one is willing to address aloud. Lee and Mistico are up next, and assuming they win their block - which they will, of course - they’ll face the winners of the first block. They’ll face their father and brother.

He’s fought Rush before. He’s _beaten_ Rush before. But never in a CMLL ring, with this many eyes on him. Never two on two, family on family, with no one else to take the fall. La dinastía Muñoz the only ones in the ring, answerable only to one another… it’s a scary thought. He hates to admit it, but it is.

His greatest worry, which he hasn’t voiced even to Mistico, is that they’ll be unmasked. He doesn’t want to think it of his own family, but Rush has gotten more disqualifications lately than ever before. He steals masks like he doesn’t care if he wins the fight, like it’s an instinct or a compulsion. Will blood be enough to stop his hands from reaching for the laces? Will he hesitate to unmask his brothers for the sake of winning a tournament?

Los Ingobernables de Japon have faced one another before, he knows. In tournaments, and in the preview tag matches leading up to one-on-one fights. They give it their all, fighting just as they would against any other opponent - harder, even, because they push each other to their limits - and they’re still a family at the end. And no one tries to unmask Bushi, because they respect him and the sanctity of the mask. But no one in LIJ is La Bestia del Ring, and he can’t expect the same reactions. It’s useless to compare the two.

He knows, in his heart, that the worry is ridiculous. This is a family that depends on love. None of them have ever taken out their frustrations on each other, even when Rush felt betrayed and was lashing out, looking for anything to justify his attitude. In his time of need, their father supported him and showed him how to act more like a rudo for his own sake, instead of just giving in to the audience by showing them the reactions they expected. Though Lee disagrees with their methods, reinventing himself kept Rush from crashing or being fired, and he’s grateful for that much.

He still gets guidance from his father, still goes to him for training. He wouldn’t go to anyone else even if they asked. La Bestia del Ring is a good wrestler and better father, and he gives his guidance to all his children, whether or not he agrees with how they live their lives. He doesn’t make an issue of it, and it’s only Lee’s insecurity that nags at him, nothing external. He knows the family bond is too strong to allow either of them to unmask him. He _knows_. He truly does trust them with his life, in and out of the ring, and he knows they would never betray his trust. But the fear is still there in the pit of his stomach, and he can’t get rid of it.

This isn’t something he wants to think about, so he won’t anymore until they’re in that situation. Better sorry than suspicious.

Despite his concerns, Lee is having fun today. He’s home, his family is home - _just_ his family, no non-Muñoz members of Los Ingobernables invited - and they’re celebrating. He offers to help make dinner, despite the laughter that draws from his uncles, but his mother sends him back to the yard - Tapatia is all the help she needs, and he can’t blame her.

Out in the yard, he claps Mistico on the shoulder during a game of horseshoes, and the glance they share tells him his brother has been thinking about the tournament too. There’s no time to get into it now, but the twist of Mistico’s lips when he darts his eyes at their father is unmistakable. Having seen their faces since birth might not stop him from showing everyone else, and that’s a terrible thought. Lee and Mistico shrug at each other and go back to their game, wordless.

It’s not something they talk about very often. Unspoken between them is the knowledge that they’re very different from their father and eldest brother, even when they team together. When they do talk about it, more often than not they’ve just fought alongside their family and are comparing their tactics.

“Can you believe he--”

“And what about when they--”

“Should we stop him next time? I know it’s our team too, but--”

It never goes anywhere. They never interfere. Losing family would be worse than losing a fight, and they’ve all agreed - without using so many words - to let one another use the strategies they prefer, rather than moralizing. It’s just another way they keep their family going, still able to offer their love and support despite disagreeing.

Lee knows there are fans and critics who think it’s inevitable that he’ll join Los Ingobernables, but he doesn’t think it’s likely. It would take a dramatic difference in his mindset to join them, even with their teasing, because even though they’re mostly his family he’s not required to agree. And more than that: he would be leaving Mistico alone. Mistico can’t team with Tapatia, so he would be the only tecnico left to fight with the others, and Lee can’t imagine doing that to him.

They have their family, and that family has its own constructed family, and the layers can be hard to navigate. Mistico and Lee have been very clear that they have to stick together and stay strong, keeping to their own morals regardless of pressure. So far they’ve been able to hold up, and Lee knows that strength will get them through.

When Tapatia has left the kitchen to show her uncles how she spars, their mother calls Lee in. She’s still bustling around, and there’s only so much he can do to help, so he tries to stay out of her way until she stops fussing and turns to look at him.

“You’re worried about the final, right?”

It chills him that he’s so obvious, but he nods. She sighs and nods in return.

“I know you’re fighters. I made peace with that a long time ago, and I know this won’t cause a rift if you don’t let it.” She smooths his hair back from his forehead, and he lets her even though he likes the way it curls down towards his eyes. “I don’t like when those others go after you, but your papá loves you, he couldn’t do anything else. He doesn’t understand you, but he loves you all the same, and he admires you for sticking to your principles. Even if he doesn’t share them and thinks you should be ruder.”

Lee laughs, because yes, a rudo is exactly what he’s trying not to be. Her wink tells him she intended the joke, and he smiles at her.

“I always fight next to them if I can, you know that. And I support them when they’re fighting, even if I’m not there. Especially against those dogs the Lucha Brothers.” His smile turns bitter, and his mother cups her hand to his cheek to draw him out of himself.

“Here, help me set the table.” She hands him a pile of napkins and he sets about arranging them as he talks.

“They don’t care about anything but themselves. They don’t care what I’ve done, or what Rush has done - they treat us all the same, like we’re a unit. I hate them. I’ll fight them in the streets, I don’t need to wait for a ring.”

"Don't fight them in the streets or you don't get paid," she points out with a smile, and Lee nods. The similarity to Hiromu's advice is comforting, somehow.

"You're right, I know. You know me, mamá. My heart gets ahead of my head. I try to respect the people I fight, it doesn't help anyone to fight with a grudge, but those two _get_ to me."

He’s said all this before, and she nods sympathetically as she hands him table runners and plates. It’s one thing to team with Rush, for his turn to be considered inevitable, but it's another to be treated by outsiders like he's already part of Los Ingobernables. At least when he's in Japan he's making the connection on his own terms, but it's almost impossible to escape at home anymore. Sometimes it’s like Penta and Fenix think that just because they’re the only family they have to deal with, every other set of brothers is the same, with the same goals. He’s the only one who’s allowed to taunt people with his association - using that against him isn’t fair.

That’s hot-headed of him, so he doesn’t say it out loud, but it’s true. This thing is between him and his family, no one else.

They’re both silent for a moment as he helps her transfer dishes to the table, and he prays a quick Hail Mary for her. She’s the backbone of this family, no one would deny that, and she loves them all in the ways they need, so they all do their best to help her any way they can. She supports his ambitions just the same as Rush's, without judging their motivations, and she proudly displays all the souvenirs her children bring her. She even, he notices suddenly, kept the red and black maneki-neko he brought her a few trips ago. The little waving cat is on a shelf near the kitchen door, with a few pesos at its feet. He’ll have to bring over a yen coin to keep them company.

“I’m glad you support them,” his mother says when the table is set. “They support you too, even if you don’t see it. We’re all so proud of you.”

“I’m grateful for it every day. I know I’m nothing without my family, I try my best to honor you.” He means it, too. Rush cringes when he’s that sincere, but Rush says the same things when they team, so he can shut up sometimes. Even mask-stealing rudos know, at the end of the day, that family is all you can truly rely on. That’s their common ground, no matter what they disagree on.

Lee kisses his mother’s forehead and touches the maneki-neko’s paw as he goes out to call the others for dinner.


End file.
